Cinderella

This production of ‘Cinderella’, written by the Director and Producer, was full of nice touches and new jokes, while the use of mobile phones and modern references brought the story right up to date.  Hence the show was a mix of traditional pantomime with a modern twist in places.  The Direction was well planned with constant interest for the audience.  Even the interval was filled with crazy pantomime adverts played over the sound system.  Occasionally there might have been better songs that fitted the story line.   However, altogether the production was musical, funny, colourful, energetic and different.  Many of the scenes were played against projected scenes on the backcloth. This worked very well most of the time, and gave a lovely sense of reality within the fairy tale.  The three dimensional effect of the path in the wood was very effective.  The moving scene for the carriage ride worked extremely well, giving the static carriage a sense of travelling.  The scene in the laundry was very funny with the shrinking of Buttons in the washing machine very effective. In fact, all the physical scenery looked very good and added a lot to the projected settings.

The costumes for the show were bright and colourful and worked to a theme.  There were red shirts with black and white dungarees, red suits, deer masks and a lovely fairy godmother in pink period dress.   The ugly sisters looked nicely hideous – although at times they looked really good, too, while the Dame’s costumes were suitably outrageous.  The make up on the ‘animal’ faces was very well done.  The music was played on piano and drums.  This was very effective on the whole, although occasionally the drums drowned out the delivery of the script. Just occasionally, too, the backing was a little thin for the singers.  The fairy effect was lovely!  Lighting was very effective in picking out main characters and changing very subtly, while the sound was well balanced and unobtrusive, apart from the owl hoot.  The acting was very good, with everyone playing their parts realty well. I loved the vibrant characters of Flash and Focus, Lady Tremaine, Fairy Godmother and Buttons while Cinderella was excellent.  The singing was very well delivered on the whole although one or two songs were rather difficult.

This was a colourful and fun production that brought the old fairy tale right up to date. The whole show was built to work as a unit and this created a highly enjoyable performance.   

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